In recent years, hardware of digital image capturing devices such as a digital camera and a camera mobile phone has become increasingly multifunctional and highly functional. This has created a trend towards product differentiation by causing software to be more multifunctional and highly functional. Examples of such more multifunctional and highly functional software include a face transforming function of causing a face in a captured facial image to look smaller and/or funny by enlarging or reducing a part of the face.
Patent Literatures 1 to 3 disclose conventional techniques of the face transforming function. An image processing device described in Patent Literature 1 is arranged as below. A facial image is detected from a target image, and a plurality of division points are provided to the detected facial image in accordance with a predetermined arrangement pattern which is associated with a type of transformation. An area which is surrounded by the plurality of division points is transformed by moving the plurality of division points. As a result, the facial image is transformed.
An image processing device described in Patent Literature 2 is arranged as below. A facial area is extracted from an image of a person. A facial contour of the person is detected from the extracted facial area. A shape of the person's face is classified in accordance with the detected contour of the face of the person. Then, the facial contour of the person is corrected in accordance with the classified shape of the person's face. A facial image reshaping device described in Patent Literature 3 is arranged as below. Points are provided on an image of a face and a neck of a person, and a mesh is generated from the points so as to be superimposed on the image. The points are relocated by applying a deformation vector to each of the points, so that the mesh is transformed and a facial image is reshaped.
As described above, according to the conventional face transforming function, a facial image is detected from a target image, division points or a facial contour are/is arranged in accordance with the detected facial image, and the division points or the facial contour are/is moved in accordance with a type of transformation, so that an area surrounded by the division points or the contour of the face is transformed.